You’ve gotta give “Hart’s War” credit. No matter what you say about the movie, it’s packed with enough plots for three flicks. It does seem kind of goofy to pack them all in together, but you’ve got to get people in the seats somehow.
American prisoners in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany? Oh yeah, it’s there.
Racial tension? Wouldn’t be a movie without it.
And a tense courtroom drama? Might as well!
And murder - there’s gotta be murder, too!
It seems like whoever was pitching this movie to studio execs just kept adding elements to get someone excited about it.
The problem is, once it’s all scooped up into one movie it turns a little incoherent and loses all the urgency the movie starts with.
We begin the film with Colin Farrell’s character, Lt. Tommy Hart.
Hart was attending law school before the service, and his senator father has made sure that he spends the war behind a desk.
But while driving a soldier from one place to another, Hart is attacked and captured.
The Nazis then torture him for information, a process which lasts three days.
Hart feels ashamed for revealing important facts, something that is only accentuated when he gets to the POW camp.
That’s because Col. McNamara (Bruce Willis) can smell the stench of traitor on him, and he sticks Hart in the enlisted men’s cabin rather than with the officers.
Off to a good start, but then comes the racial problem - two black Air Force lieutenants are brought to the camp, and McNamara also sticks them with Hart.
But the men in the cabin are so racist that they make the newcomer’s lives hell. One man especially goes out of his way to annoy the pair - Sgt. Bedford (Cole Hauser), who seems like a nice guy at first, except for the constant wheeling and dealing with the Nazi guards.
So when Bedford turns up dead, everyone starts pointing their fingers at you-know-who, and suddenly we’ve got a courtroom drama.
McNamara assigns Hart to be defense council, and Hart begins to fight to make people believe his client is innocent.
That lasts for a little while, until we discover that the whole murder-mystery thing is a cover- up for an escape attempt.
Hart also finds this out and is outraged that McNamara, who’s been behind all the shenanigans, would sacrifice an innocent man for his purposes.
It’s a lot of stuff to pack into one movie, and with all the jumping around it becomes a little difficult to figure out exactly what it is we’re supposed to care about.
Is it Hart? The race issue? The trial? The escape?
For the love of God, just tell me!
On one hand, it’s admirable that they tried to pack so much into one movie, especially with a bit of a conscience.
But the myriad aspects of the story pull away from the storytelling. Not a huge complaint, but it does distract.
One or more of the twists could have been easily removed without losing anything and the whole thing would flow much better.
But the acting is pretty solid and the story itself is an intriguing one, even if it gets a little convoluted. It scores a few points for even trying in the first place, providing some fine entertainment. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.
